TBK-Light.com

Shame they lost a Pro car. Would rather 2 Am cars disappeared. Am class is no place for works entries tbh.

Yeah that's true. But it seems like Prodrive nowadays survives on those paydrivers (in GT AM) to keep their operation running. They probably couldn't find enough pay drivers to fund any 3th serious Pro car.

We have no more cars on the reserve list, so does that mean every car now falling out will mean less cars on the grid?

ditto

Looks like a poor entry list at the moment, only 28 cars...

Quality > quantity

Rebellion R-One in its paint-scheme:

If I'm honest, I don't think works or almost-works teams should be allowed in GTE-Am. Perhaps many will disagree, but I see Am for actual amateur teams, with old cars, etc. Not for Aston Martin with Stuart Hall and Jamie Campbell-Walter driving them.

Can't, groezrock is on the same weekend.

I agree. But if you look at the entry list most of the teams consist of (semi-) factory teams not just Aston Martin: AF Corse (4x), Prospeed and Proton (Porsche). The fact that a driver like Pedro Lamy drives in GTE-AM this year, shows how fucked up it is.

TBH I think GTE-AM is a useless class. They should allow more GTE-PRO cars or prototypes cars. Let's be honest not a lot of people care about that class, 18 cars for a class like is way too much. The semi-factory teams should be placed in the Pro class so they would be forced to put better drivers in them. The fact that 2 good funded LMP2 cars where on the reserve list (Caterham and Labre) shows that class is way too big.

To be honest, until the LMP1s got the power increase this season, which has allowed them to out drag the GTEs, I was all for binning GTE-Am and putting GT3 into that spot. A big issue the LMPs had was not being able to pass GTEs easily down the straights. Now that issue seems to be neutralised, I think they should be classifying teams in the same way they classify drivers - so works teams cannot come into it.

However I also agree with you Fish - it is a pointless class. It's the same cars (but a year old) as GTE-Pro, but behind them. So what's the attraction of GTE-Am? It's just the same stuff. If there is going to be 2 GT classes, then I think there needs to be a distinct difference, even if that is only works and privateer entries.

Bring back GT1 (I can always dream...)!!!

Add in homologation trickery a la Porsche, so even the cars are not really "an year old" as the original idea was.

I believe last years GTE-AM Astons also had some updates carried over from 2013.

I'm also in agreement that GTE-Am is pretty useless as it is right now with loads of Pro drivers in it, but I'd hardly call teams like Proton or ProSpeed 'semi-factory'. Yes, they receive support from Porsche Motorsport, but even the Aston Martin Vantage racing in the Belgian Race Car Championship gets AMR engineers

AF Corse is a bit trickier, even though I'm not really sure how they're run these days. Do they have different 'teams' underneath the AF Corse banner? AMR is full-on factory though.

Aren't the horribly named "Spirit Of Race" team in TUSCR an AF Corse operation in all but name?

Funnily the AF name is named after Amato Ferrari,a small time BTCC driver in 1990. No direct link to the Italian marque though!

They are ex-factory Porsche teams (at some point), so I assume there is still some links to Porsche.

Rebellion presentation





Needs more gold elements IMO. Livery looks a bit dull.

Nah, I like it better this way than with gold parts on it. Simple and this way it's an actual reference to the Swiss flag.

I'd like the gold lines to be thicker, but I like the livery.

At least it's not Lotus black or 2014 white.